Your Art Product

Get Paid To Draw

By Joshua Nava on Mon, 29 Jan 2018

This online services gives you what you want without having to make a complicated and difficult career out of it: we give you a platform to get PAID for drawing. It is as simple as drawing what you want, scanning it into our system, and reaping the benefits of people who will pay for your art! And who told you that you can't make any money from art? All you need to know is how to draw and how to use email If you have those two basic skills you can make as much money as you want; it all depends on how much you draw! And you don't even have to be the best artist out there; all it takes is a bit of a skill and that want to make money from your art, and you are on your way to making that side money!

Get Paid To Draw Overview

J s you grow in your art, you may hit a plateau. You may need a kick-start for inspiration or wonder how to improve your art skills. Read the list in this chapter whenever you need a boost. The good news is there are lots of ideas to push you to the next level. Possibly the easiest ways to get better is to upgrade your art supplies. You do get what you pay for. A well-cared-for sable brush can last your whole career and produce the same fine lines on its last day of work as on its first. A better grade of paper helps give your paintings depth and texture. More expensive paints produce richer colors. (Chapter 2 talks about supplies.) Improve your drawing skills. Draw every day. Keep a sketchbook and use it. Set up a studio space you use only for creating art. Paint every day. Paint from life. (Chapter 8 covers drawing, and Chapter 2 talks about painting habits.)

One of the great things about working with art in the digital age is that you can modify your art using the computer in ways you never could before. The ability to modify your artwork on the computer helps produce clean, crisp art. The Eraser tool in Photoshop is one of these great tools that make your job a lot easier. After you scan in your artwork you may find smudges, smeared lines, or other imperfections in your line art. These types of imperfections have a way of becoming even more noticeable when the art is reprinted, at which point it's too late to clean it up. The old way of cleaning up your art required you to erase all your pencil lines after the ink dried so that these small lines wouldn't show up when your cartoon was reprinted. Typically, a cartoonist would sketch out the drawing with light pencil lines and then move to the final phase of the drawing known as inking. Using the light pencil sketch as a guide, the artist would either take a pen, nib, or brush and go over...

Getting your artwork from paper to computer is known as digitally formatting your art. To get artwork from paper to computer, you need a basic piece of equipment known as a scanner. Scanners, or more specifically, flatbed scanners, are absolutely essential to cartooning today, because without one, you can't digitize your artwork. With a scanner, you place your drawing face down on the surface like you would a copy machine. From your computer you operate the scanner controls, and within a few minutes your art is transferred digitally and appears on your computer screen, ready for you to color, e-mail, or post on your Web site Fortunately, scanners, compared to other computer devices, are relatively inexpensive. This section walks you through what you need to know about digitizing your art, including getting the right scanner, scanning in your work, and saving it in the proper format so you can work with it.

When you did your drawing of the Vase Faces, you drew the first profile in the left-hemisphere mode, like the European navigator, taking one part at a time and naming the parts one by one. The second profile was drawn in the right-hemisphere mode. Like the navigator from the South Sea Island of Truk, you constantly scanned to adjust the direction of the line. You probably found that naming the parts such as forehead, nose, or mouth seemed to confuse you. It was better not to think of the drawing as a face. It was easier to use the shape of the space between the two profiles as your guide. Stated differently, it was easiest not to think at all that is, in words. In right-hemisphere-mode drawing, the mode of the artist, if you do use words to think, ask yourself only such things as

Just decide where your bands of light and shade are going to flow and place your forms. Alternatively you can make your drawing of the forms then apply the light - or like me use a little of both and if something doesn't work keep experimenting. Don't change the color just alter the values

As you proceed to build all sorts of shapes out of simpler ones, it is amazing what you can do with them, and how accurate and solid'' the resulting drawings will appear. The surprising part is that, when the construction lines are erased, very few could guess how it had been done. Your drawing appears us complicated and difficult to the other fellow as mine might seem to you now. It takes on a look of professional workmanship, which indeed it has, since the professional artist has by some method had to construct'' his work to make it professional.''

STUDENT ACTIVITY Look up some paint manufacturers or go to your art supplier and find answers to these questions. Name three oils that can be used in oil paint manufacture. What is stand oil How is sundried oil made Name a non-drying oil. What is a varnish What is a resin What is a medium Which is the most transparent white of those commercially available today What medium is used for acrylic paints

Creating figures that seem to move through space will bring far more interest to your drawings. The human body can bend and stretch itself into many different positions, so there can be no step-by-step method to cover them all. Your best bet is to study how the body moves by observing actual people. Make quick sketches of anyone performing some task or sitting in some position. While doing so, keep in mind what you know about the anatomy of the body. Here are some examples for you. Usually, when fabric bends it buckles. You can show this in your drawing with lines leading away from the bend. Notice the buckling here at the armpit and across the chest.

Tackle everything If your hand -s still a bit reluctant to do your bidding, let it lag. It will catch up with your demands- it always does. The training of your eye to ooserve, weigh, and to compare correct relationships is more important For the moment, let your drawing be abored or even crude, as long as it's correct. Be assured that lacility will come in time.

With the exception of the contour study, there is no drawing that is not a memory drawing because, no matter how slight the interval is from the time you look at the model until you look at your drawing or painting, you are memorizing what you have just seen. Of course, in that kind of drawing in which the student looks back and forth from the model continuously, he is memorizing little bits at a time, hoping to be able, after he has assembled all the little bits, to put them together by some preconceived theory or plan or by some belated effort to see the model as a whole.

Often a growth from the tree will leave an indentation in the main trunk or grow a sort of collar around the circumference. Including this in your drawing gives the boughs and branches a look of being attached or belonging to the trunk. And be aware that when branches grow downward, they should be drawn lighter in value, since they get more light. When they grow upward, they should be darker in value. Drawing the upper sides of branches in lighter values and the lower sides in darker values gives the appearance of roundness and weight.

Understanding perspective is very important if you want to create height or depth in your drawing. The term used to describe a scene viewed from above is called a bird's-eye view. The term comes from the fact that the viewer's angle and perspective is the same as a bird's if it were flying high up in the air

If you aren't happy with the default cursors for your drawing tools, don't use them Manga Studio provides several different cursors that you can use in place of what the Pen, Pencil, Marker, Eraser, Airbrush, and Pattern Brush tools offer initially. You have several cursor options available in place of the default ones for your drawing tools.

If you arc disturbed by seeing edges of planes in a drawing of a baby face it is probably because you are too close to your drawing. Step back before you change it. Maude Tousey Fangel, one of the greatest baby artists, draws quite vigorously in angles and planes. Mar)' Cassatt, the Impressionist painter and student of Degas, also had this quality in her work.

The first and easiest way to apply fixative is to buy the spray can version of the material (illustration 1). Although this can be expensive, in my opinion it is worth it. The other option is to buy the fixative in a bottle. It comes as a clear solution, and it needs to be applied through what is called a diffuser. One end of the diffuser is placed into the fixative solution and the other end into the mouth (illustration 2). You then proceed to blow steadily. This action creates a spray, which you aim at your drawing. You must repeat this action two or three times, as you would with the spray can variety of fixative, to achieve a good covering. A much cheaper way to fix your drawing is to make your own fixative from diluted resin. This is a very time consuming process, but if you like doing this sort of thing it can be very rewarding. (If you are interested in attempting this, you can find 'recipes' in the 'Handbook of Artists Materials and Techniques' by Ralph Mayer.) You will need a...

2 Start to draw your composition from the edge of the paper. Draw what you see through the window mount. Remember that your window mount should be in scale to your drawing otherwise you will get distortion. For instance, if your drawing is A1 your window mount should be A5. Draw a line that goes over the top of the objects and off the edge of the paper at the other side.

Well, there's nothing stopping you from customizing these tools to better suit your style of working. After all, you're going to be using them to create your next great masterpiece, so why not make them comfortable to use The good news is that it's quite easy to adjust the settings of your drawing tools. Pressure Settings If you think this option looks a lot like a graph, you're right. The curve you see sets the size of the line drawn relative to the pressure sensitivity of your drawing tablet. This allows you to adjust how much pressure you need to place on your tablet. The lower you set the curve, the more pressure you need to exert, and vice versa. (Compare settings between the Magic Marker and the G Pen, for example try each of them out on the canvas to see and feel the difference.)

We can analyse our observations in a number of ways to enable us to make a visual record of what we see. One of these ways involves using the pencil both as mark maker and measuring device. What you are doing in effect is building a grid on which to map out your drawing. This approach is appropriate for all types of observational drawing and for different subjects ranging from landscape and still life to figure drawing. I have chosen a figure for our example because the pencil is still the most popular measure for this type of drawing go to the life rooms of any art college and you will find it widely used. The procedure is as follows

Your recent R-mode drawings, on the other hand, are more complex, more linked to actual perceptual information from out there, drawn from the present moment, not from memorized symbols of the past. These drawings are therefore more realistic. A friend might remark upon looking at your drawings that you had uncovered a hidden talent. In a way, I believe this is true, although I am convinced that this talent is not confined to a few, but instead is as widespread as, say, talent for reading. At some future time, you may wish to partly reintegrate simplified, conceptual forms into your drawings. But you will do so by design, not by mistake or inability to draw realistically. For now, I hope you are proud of your drawings as signs of victory in the struggle to learn basic perceptual skills and to control the processes of your brain.

Start your drawing of Jabba's little pet with two triangular shapes, one on top of the other. Then draw two curved lines going out from the larger triangle. These shapes and lines create guides for drawing Crumb's head, beak and ears. You should always start your drawings with basic shapes guidelines that you can build upon later with details.

As always, draw a format edge on your drawing paper, using the outside edge of one of your Viewfinders. This format is in the same proportion, width to height, as the reproduction. 8. At this point you have the drawing blocked in. The rest is all refinement, called working up the drawing to a finish. Note that, because the original drawing was done in charcoal and you are working in pencil, the exact roughness of the charcoal medium is difficult to reproduce in pencil. But also, even though you are copying Courbet's self-portrait, your drawing is your drawing. Your unique line quality and choice of emphasis will differ from Courbet's. 11. Draw just what you see, no more, no less. You'll notice that the whites of the eyes are barely lighter than the dark shadow surrounding the eye. You will be tempted to erase out the whites because, well, you know they are called whites of the eyes. Don't do it Allow the viewer of your drawing to play the game of seeing what is not there. Your job is...

Always remember, it requires patience to build the tones. Hurrying with colored pencil will create an unevenness in the application and ruin the look of your drawing. Do not overlap too many different colors, or they will build up and become opaque. Lightly draw two spherical stones on your drawing paper with a mechanical pencil. You may notice a milky haze forming on your drawing as you burnish with wax-based colored pencils. The colors will look like they have a filmy coating over them. This is perfectly normal. It is just the wax of the pencil separating from the pigment and rising to the surface. You can buff it a bit with your finger or a tissue and it will go away however, it will soon return. To correct this problem, it is important to spray your drawing with a fixative when you are finished. This seals the color, and prevents the wax from separating.

In the previous pages, we have discussed seeing values and translating values from nature to your drawing. Now I would like to introduce you to the three Gs foreground, middle ground and background. Most landscapes have all of these in their composition, and they may vary in any imaginable combination. Now is the time to make thumbnails to help you decide the placement of values in your foreground, middle ground and background what will dominate your drawing and what combination of values will tell your story.

A plan view of a twist drill stand is given in Fig. 14.5 to illustrate chain dimensioning. Now each of the dimensions in the chain would be subject to a manufacturing tolerance since it is not possible to mark out and drill each of the centre distances exactly. As a test of drawing accuracy, start at the left hand side and mark out the dimensions shown in turn. Measure the overall figure on your drawing and check with the auxiliary dimension given. Note the considerable variation in length, which results from small errors in each of the six separate dimensions in the chain, which clearly accumulate. Imagine the effect of marking out say twenty holes for rivets in each of two plates, how many holes would eventually line up The overall length is shown in parentheses (157) and is known as an auxiliary dimension. This dimension is not one which is worked to in practice but is given purely for reference purposes. You will now appreciate that it will depend on the accuracy with which each...

As you start to draw from nature, you will want to indicate textures such as stone, wood, grass, shingles, etc. Not only will this give your drawings authenticity, but it will also add liveliness and interest. Remember, however, that you are not copying an object, but indicating it this means that you do not want to strive for a photographic copy, but, you do want to combine values and strokes to simulate the quality of the object's texture. When lines and tones are combined, you achieve the patterns necessary to draw convincing subjects (see below and following page). Creat

Remember, that drawings are the media to communicate the design intent used to the manufacturing and verification units. Therefore always check over your drawing, view it and question yourself. Is the information complete Ask yourself whether or not the machinist or fitter can use or work to the dimension you have quoted to make the item. Also, can the inspector verify the figure, in other words, is it a measurable distance

Care should be taken not to draw the mouth too large on a little girls face, or too black. This can easily give an adult look, or a theatrical effect not pleasant in children. The little girls neck is round and small in proportion to the head. The crease between the neck and jaw seldom runs up to the ear but points below it. It is seldom sharply defined. The forehead may easily protrude a little at the top. The planes of the face are all well rounded, but to keep your drawing from looking too smooth and photographic, you can introduce a good deal of blockiness into the hair. The ear is more delicate in structure and it comes up to the halfway line. The brows should also be kept delicate.

On the lined paper answer the following questions about your drawings At this juncture, as awkward as it may seem, take your drawings and the lined sheet of paper and place them in a safe area. We will be discussing them in detail in Chapter 3, and you will retrieve them at that time. However, if you cannot wait, feel free to jump forward to Part 2 and join me in assessment procedures.

Setting up your drawing area Choosing a worktable Purchasing the necessary supplies Deciding on a computer and other equipment Getting the right software Good lighting is important because you have to be able to see what you're drawing and you don't want to strain your eyes more than you have to. You also don't want to cast shadows on your drawing. To ensure your workspace has appropriate lighting to help you see, a good swivel arm lamp that attaches to your drafting table is the best way to go. In my workspace, I use two adjustable swing arm lamps that you can purchase at any art supply store. When you think about cartooning, a computer may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But computers in today's cartoon world are as important a tool as the pencil. Although you may still draw all your art on paper using the traditional pen and ink technique, a computer enables you to scan in your cartoons, e-mail art files, and color your comics.

Light can be handled just as seriously on comic forms as on any other, for form is form, and light defines it. The sphere in the left-hand upper comer of page 99 and the drawing next to it show the plan of drawing such forms attached to the ball. Invent your forms as you wish, so long as you duplicate them on each side of the face, You can gain a lot of experience in lighting form if you get some modeler's clay or plasticine and build up some of these forms on a ball. Then set the model up in light, and draw the light and shadow as they appear. This will help you achieve a very convincing solidity in your drawings, and also develop your structural sense. Any competent artist should be able to model forms that he has drawn often, for drawing and modeling have such an affinity that to be able to do the one almost assures the ability to do the other.

Using a grid is probably one of the oldest systems artists have used to establish correct proportions. There are two types of grids (or optical indexing) you can use First, you can draw equally-spaced horizontal and vertical lines across your paper. Repeat this pattern on your photo. Now draw the shapes that occur within each square and locate where the shapes cross the guidelines. If your grid is the same size as your photo, you can draw each shape the same proportion on your paper. You can also enlarge or reduce the size of drawings by simply adjusting the size of the grid on your paper and proportionally changing the size of the shapes on your paper. Secondly, draw an occasional horizontal and vertical line or two (or as many as you need) to orient you on the paper. This will help you establish location and proportion on your drawing. Either of the forms of optical indexing are extremely useful for establishing proportions.

Burning an image with the Burn tool darkens an area, while dodging an image with the Dodge tool lightens the area. You can see how these two tools can add shading and highlighting and give a 2-D image a 3-D effect by noticing the difference between the original image on the left and the one on the right (in Figure 15-11). These tools are great for adding highlights and shading to your art that give the impression of definition of shape as well as depth and dimension to your art.

Self-analysis is a continuous comparison exercise. Analyze what you see in visual reality (shapes, sizes, locations, edges, textures, colors, or tones), then compare it to your drawing. Adjust the illustration as needed. Make studies (sketches) of the subject and compare them to what is there. Stay away from symbols. a. You can use the systematic approach not only as a method for drawing but also as a method of analysis. You can determine how realistic your drawing is by using each step as a checklist. This analysis should be done at each step. Make visual comparisons between the drawing and the subject. It will help keep your work accurate and on track. The systematic approach works together with the next characteristic - practice. 2. You must initially ignore your subjects' details and break them into their basic forms. The basic forms are the cube, cone, cylinder, and sphere (fig 2-3) and everything in visual reality can be part of one or more than one of these. Anything in a...

Vanishing points and their theory can be applied to landscapes as well as still lifes. Even people and wildlife are influenced by perspective. Understanding and being able to use vanishing points makes your drawing in your paintings more believable and realistic. Paper has length and width two dimensions. You're trying to get your audience to believe that there is depth or a third dimension which is always an illusion. You need every trick you can to make this magic happen. Two-point is the most useful of the three types of perspective. Most landscapes are drawn or painted in two-point perspective. You can also use two-point perspective in a still life. This type of perspective helps your drawings look believable, so your paintings will be more realistic.

Those of you who completed the DAP (from the introduction) will refer to those renderings. Everyone else should use Figure 3.2 which was completed by a healthy female who works in the mental health field (see disk to view these figures in color). If you completed your drawings when first reading this book, you may not have any free associations at hand, but with a client these are of the utmost importance. How we approach a new, requested task is central to how we approach anything original and unknown in the environment, and it is the clients' spontaneous statements that offer us a glimpse into their ego strength. If you are assessing your drawings before reviewing the sample cases, please retrieve them now. At this juncture write down what you see as you look at the completed renderings. What do you like What stands out What immediate visceral response do you have to the drawings

In this chapter, you will learn very simple ways of establishing the shape of light and shadow areas in your drawings. You will also learn how to achieve the illusion of three-dimensionality. The techniques in this chapter are used to create a reductive or tonal drawing, as the shape or pattern of light is removed from previously toned paper. A beautiful oval-shaped vase is used for many of the drawing examples because it has a simple round form, which lends itself well to the principles being demonstrated here. Key Your Drawing . ' 58 In the initial stages of your drawings, try squinting as often as possible when you're looking at your subject. Eventually, squinting will become second nature to you. The reason for doing this is to concentrate your attention on the large shapes. Many beginners become overwhelmed by details, and details are not important in the first stage of a drawing. What is important is to map in the structure of what you are drawing. You will not find structure in...

Honestly evaluating your work is something you must do before you go any further with your desire to become a professional cartoonist. Take a long hard look at your drawing skills while asking yourself the following questions Does your art look like it would be at home next to the other long-running strips that have been published in the newspapers over the last ten years

The illusion of a cube is created by a controlled splatter technique using a toothbrush. First draw the cube out lightly using a pencil, not forgetting to put the back line in to create the sense of space. Then mask out the areas surrounding the darkest side of the cube, leaving that area the only area open to the splattering. Take the toothbrush and dip it into the ink. Make a test example first of all to ensure a smooth and consistent area of ink is applied, and when you are happy with the result turn the process to the exposed area on your drawing. When this has dried do the same with the mid tone area by masking around that and then applying a mid-tone. Wait for it to dry and the using the same procedure do the same for the last, and lightest tone.

Smiles that radiate happiness are difficult for any artist. They arc much easier to render in an outline drawing than a tonal drawing. If your drawing of heads must provide an income you will do well to practice drawing smiles from clippings, since a model can rarely hold a genuine smile for very long. Study particularly the forms around the comers of the mouth, and the forms of the cheeks.

As the easiest to draw, and that which, probably, will show most clearly to the pupil the principles upon which he must rely for accuracy, let him begin with a full 01* front view of the Moutii and before making any attempt at expression he should become familiar with the actual form of the features, and be capable of delineating them knowingly. The first thing to be done is to get the beautiful line produced by the meeting of the lips. On a straight line first indicate the width of I he mouth, and then the centre, either by dots or faint lines (8) then proceed to express these points with due reference to the true form of the object after which indicate in the same way the thickness of the lips, etc. This done with care and precision, to connect the points and to produce a correct outline according to the form of the object you are imitating (22) will be found comparatively easy and with a correct outline you have a sure foundation upon which to proceed in the completion of your...

When you think about shadows rather than individual objects, you can refine your drawing and know that the apple must be in shadow. Light, unfortunately, does not always form strongly defined shapes. It is up to you, as an artist, to make a decision about the size and configuration of the shapes based on your observations. Do you notice that by shading in the shadow areas only, you have instantly created the shape of the light area You have created your own jigsaw puzzle You are now on the way to understanding how to create a sense of depth and volume in your drawing.

When you look at a forest, you see big and small trees, wide and thin trees. There are also numerous pine trees and trees that do not shed all their leaves. This means the forest is denser in some areas and thinner in others, providing an environment of various shapes to include in your drawing. A forest without foliage seems to be dozing, but it is very much alive and full of happenings. Start your drawing as indicated by the sketch at the top. This is your guide, your thinking. You do not have to adhere to this sketch you can change, move, eliminate if you feel it will im

When you start your drawing, the sun (the primary light source) will be in a certain position. As you work, the sun will move across the sky, creating new shadows, which can change the feeling that inspired you to select this particular area for a picture. There are several remedies for this situation. One is to work the same time every day, or from one particular hour to the next. Another is to make as many line-and-value sketches as you need to help you recapture the scene when you get back to your studio. Last, if you do not intend to return to a particular spot, use your camera. Sketches, notes and photos should give you enough material to capture that light you wanted to preserve in your drawing.

V* Check your paper to make sure ifs properly aligned with the glass. (Unless you sketched your drawing crooked. In that case, you can align the paper however you'd like.) V If your computer can handle it, try to scan your drawing at 300 dpi or greater resolution. It's a lot easier to ink your work from crisp pencils than blurry ones. Scanning at a higher resolution and scaling it down to fit the page helps. I go over scaling in the Adjusting the image size section, later in this chapter.

Acquiring your drawing equipment can be exciting, and possibly a bit overwhelming. I still get a great deal of joy going into an art store and wandering around to see what's new. I get the same feeling when a new catalog comes in the mail. I find myself going through the whole catalog even though I might only need a few pencils. It is the thrill or anticipation of finding something new to work with that magic pen or brush that somehow always eludes us. As time goes by, you are going to want to try other materials to draw with, and you should. That's part of the excitement.

Toning your paper or surface before you start your drawing creates a midvalue color as a background, and with just two more values a dark and a light you can compose an interesting and unusual picture. There are many ways to tone paper, such as pastels, watercolors, gouache and acrylics, to name a few. Artists are constantly toning their canvases and overpainting with complementary colors for more interesting color effects. After you've lifted out the shapes you want, you can then work back into your drawing with vine or charcoal pencils to add details, emphasize shapes, or make an area darker.

Lay the darkest tones down first, followed by the thinner lighter tones. To make the lighter tones, put a little water in a dish and add some ink to it, then test the strength of the tone you have made by brushing this fluid on a practice piece of paper. If you need it to be darker then add some more ink. If you want it to be lighter then add some more water. Keep testing the strength of your tones before you apply them to your drawing. When you are applying them to you work your aim is to copy where the tones are on the original drawing. If you make some tonal areas too dark your can lighten them by putting down a layer of correction fluid over it. You can cover the area very opaquely and then lay another wash over the top again to get it right. Alternatively, one can try to brush the fluid

The first thing we must do before sketching is make a series of marks indicating the measurements to which we can refer throughout the entire sketching phase. One surefire way to begin your drawing is to find the line of the shoulders and the head. It is usually easier to draw from the top down. From there we will work downward through the body, drawing synthetic shapes on a standing surface, paying special attention to the vertical lines. We should look for directions and rhythms and see them as abstract forms.

To understand shading, you need to know three things What to look for, how to evaluate what you're seeing and any useful techniques to make your drawings better. The only additional tip for shading your drawing is practice. Shading involves hand-eye coordination. Emerging artists have trouble with shading not because it is more technical or difficult they struggle because it requires new physical skills that come with practice. Preserve the white areas of your drawing. Remember that you are grinding lead into the paper, and though the paper is smooth and cleans up well, you want to keep from grinding lead into the areas you know will remain white. Work from your dark areas and blend toward your lighter areas.

The idea here is to give you the freedom to really go crazy with your drawing. Need to draw the entire body of a character in a scene to make sure the half that will be seen looks correct No problem. Anything you draw that you don't want to show can be easily masked off that way, the final piece will contain only the artwork you want everyone to see.

A visual analysis of any single moment in the action can be readily undertaken using the simplified skeletal, matchstick-figure and gesture drawings discussed in Chapter 1. As you draw, try to feel the action in your own limbs, and use the pencil to search out the movements and tensions of the body if you experience the action yourself your drawing will reflect and communicate it effectively. Just reading about all this will not improve your ability to draw it. You need to search out the information in visual terms for yourself, and practise drawing the essentials, so that the essence of the action becomes a part of your drawing experience. If you have any difficulty, go through the whole movement yourself, noticing how your body quite naturally adopts the balancing and compensating positions which your drawing will need to show in order to be convincing. The two drawings at the top of this page are attempts to draw a man kicking a football. The first figure could be kicking, but if...

Before you can begin to color your artwork, you must convert it from bitmap to grayscale and then to a color mode. You may wonder why you can't save it directly into a color mode. In order to ensure that your line art is crisp and true black, you must scan it in first as a bitmap. If you scanned it in directly as a color file, the line art would appear dark gray and the file would probably be too big to work on without using up too much of your computer's memory.

The only way to get sweep in the line is to have your model go through the entire movement and observe it carcfully, choosing th instant that suggests the most movement. Usually the action can be best expressed if you use the start or finish of the sweep. A baseball pitcher suggests the most action either as he is all wound up, ready to throw, or just as he lets go of the ball. A golfer expresses movement best at the start or finish of the swing. If you were to show him on the point of hitting the ball, your drawing would have no action pietorially, and he would appear only to be addressing the ball in his ordinary stance. A horse seems to be going faster when his legs are either all drawn up under him or fully extended. The pendulum of a clock appears to l&gt c moving when it is at cither extreme of its swing. A hammer raised from a nail suggests a harder blow and more movement than if it were shown close to the nail.

Always have a piece of clean scrap paper wider your drawing hand to keep vour w(M clean. Make sure you lift rather than slide it to a new position, to avoid smudging. After sharpening a pencil, strike it on a piece of scrap paper to smooth the working side, or end, ensunng that you gel the mark, you want when you begin your drawing. Repeat this process eveiy time you pick up a pencil to resume drawing. The familiar ballpoint pen is excellent for sketching work. Not being able to remove errors will make you more positive in your drawing Use some plain photocopier paper to do some simple trials. Remove excess ink from around the ball frequently, using paper tissue. It is not usually critical to draw the exact proportions of any given tree. However, you can improve the accuracy of your drawing by using a method known as measured drawing. I do this as follows with my arm out straight, one eye closed and holding my pencil horizontally, I use it to gauge the width of the whole tree....

Manga Studio takes the layers concept one step further than other drawing programs. In addition to pencil, ink, and screentone layers, the program provides layers for many of your drawing aids. You can have masking and selection areas (discussed in Chapter 9), rulers and guides (Chapter 8), individual panels (Chapter 7), perspective and other effect lines and rulers (Chapter 8), and a printing guide (Chapter 1), each on its own layer (See Figure 6-1.)

We're going to use a general structure that can be applied to all faces, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. It will provide you with flexible guidelines to be modified according to the particulars of the model you use. Your observations take priority over the guidelines. When you realize something is really off in your drawing, return to the basic rules of proportion to help you. You'll learn to draw the frontal view of the face using exercises that fall into four groups Be careful not to make the eyes too large for the face, a natural tendency considering their importance to us emotionally. How can you avoid this common mistake Be aware that the nose is longer than the lengthwise measurement of the eye. Compare the length of your own eye by sighting on the horizontal (end to end) and comparing it to the length of your nose on a vertical. This is the general proportion to maintain in your drawing. Check it against your drawing. If you have made the eye measurement longer than...

Nostril still lines up on a vertical with the tear duct and the corner of the mouth with the front of the eyeball. But since details of tear ducts and pupils are difficult to see in profile, how can you draw correctly what you can't see clearly because of angle, distance, or shadows that make it impossible to find details Line up general shape references for key features and explicit shapes if that is the extent of what you see. Accept the limits of what you can see, and your drawing will work. Don't make up details or move closer to your model to gather details, then apply them to a drawing done from a distance. The result will be an odd, unconvincing blend of near and far references. Instead, create an impression that duplicates your actual viewing experience. Draw value shapes with soft edges that produce an image with suggested, rather than specific, details. Look at your drawing from a distance to see if you have fallen into a profile pitfall. If you kept your lines sketchy, you...

Tracing paper is cheap, so you can use it abundantly. Scribble out your drawing. Then take another piece of tracing paper and lay it on top. Trace the lines you like and refine the drawing. Instead of erasing, lay on more tracing paper and refine the drawing again. When you finish refining your image, place the final tracing paper over your watercolor paper. You can see through the paper to see the watercolor paper's edges. Move the drawing around until you like the placement, then transfer the image, using the steps in the Transferring your drawing to your watercolor paper section later in this chapter. Computers are amazing tools. Some artists are going completely digital by using photo manipulation programs and technologies. Many fine art shows are wary of this and don't allow digitally enhanced images. Still, computers can be a great tool to aid in preparing your reference materials. When you work from your own photographs, you can import them to the computer and use software to...

From the belief that everything should be stated in total on the paper. As an exercise, practice drawing in values alone, so that you suggest edges by changing light and value, rather than with line only (the value exercise suggestions on page 12 are a good place to start). If your drawing or painting suffers from tightening-up, the best remedy is to allocate yourself only a short time to work. That way you don't have time to overwork certain passages with excessive detail, and you're forced to make quick decisions.

Okay, after all this drawing, how about a little painting (This is, after all, a book about painting.) This project allows you to practice your drawing and shading skills as well as work with perspective. Then you get to give your paintbrush a workout as well. See the steps in the Transferring your drawing to your watercolor paper if you need a refresher on how to get the image out of the book and onto your paper.

At this stage, it is very useful to frequently place your drawing next to the actual cast and step back at least 10 feet to compare them side-by-side. This is the best way to gauge the accuracy of drawing and tones in your rendering. Now, more of the half tones in the light area have been drawn using the medium and hard grades of charcoal the artist was careful to not overstate them. If you draw the half tones within the light too dark, they'll merge with the shadow and the separation between the light area and the shadow becomes lost, and the feeling of solidity in your drawing will become compromised. Always compare the half tones in the light against the lightest light to gauge their tone. There is also more elaboration of the shadow, with the structure of the cheekbone, temple area, and beard being defined. With the addition of curved contours, notice that the contours of forms that were once more angular have become more varied. Again, having first blocked in the contours in an...

What the Gray palette (shown in Figure 15-1) does is save you time. Instead of going through each pencil type, you simply adjust the gray level in the palette, and all your pencil tools now draw in that same shade of gray. Even more, all of your drawing tools use the same gray level. If you need to change colors on-the-fly, simply adjust the level in the Gray palette again and keep working with any of the drawing tools you want.

Although the character in nos. 9 and 10 is one and the same, you can see how they differ not only in design but also in personality It is a subconscious prerequisite in the reader's mind tor main anime and manga characters to be attractive. It is what is expected. By adding depth to their attractiveness, we can surprise the reader by surpassing their expectations It marks the first step when someone says your drawing is good, but a real beginning when they say it is great. is very abstract. But the feeling is important. If you have this, your drawings will have the power to move people. Once you can draw this, you can improve the variation in your drawings dramatically. This angle must be practiced because it is commonly used. Make the curves of the eyes and the head parallel so that the eyes don't droop. Take care where you draw the hairline because it differs depending on the character. This angle often appears in interview tests at animation studio companies. How the parts on the...

Dlesticks is vital to attaining their correct shape. Draw the center line through your object as the artist has done (see below). Next, draw the left contour of your object then flop your drawing over. Register your center line and trace the contour of the right side from your left one onto another sheet of paper. Both sides of your object should now be perfectly alike symmetrical. Then, taking still another sheet of paper, trace the entire object and refine your drawing by eliminating any incorrect lines. Therefore, you must sharpen your visual powers. You must do more than see, you must observe. You must learn to think about what you're viewing and ask yourself basic questions concerning an object's relative proportions and dimensionsi Observation will play an important part in your drawing as you draw objects in relation to the horizon, that is, as you draw objects in perspective. Search for the proportions of your basic forms with many lines don't erase any of them. In this way...

Add Reflections and Final Darks and Details Add reflections with back-and-forth horizontal strokes using a 4H pencil. Lightly indicate distant water and trees near the horizon. Add some darks to the boats with a 4B pencil and darken much of the foreground boat with the 4H pencil. Add some simple seagull shapes with a 4H pencil. Sign and date your artwork.

Remember Everything in Chapter One works together. At times you will see applied force, and sometimes you will see the chance to go long, all within the same pose. Either way, you want your drawing to be a festival of the life that was in front of you, a loud drawing of your understanding. Don't forget the power of the force full curve.

Another point, though obvious, is worth mentioning your drawing standpoint must never vary while you prepare your freehand drawing, i.e., there must be no change in standing or sitting position. Similarly, the eyes must always follow the same sightline. Deviations in standpoint or sight-line will immediately falsify the illustration

To present trees in your drawings that have a reasonable resemblance to the type of trees you wish to portray, you must study the characteristics of the various trees you come into contact with. Drawing D has an ash silhouetted against some pines. This is a good way to make a light tree come forward and to give your drawing depth.

Readjustments of this kind take place every time we change our posture. We retain our equilibrium by constantly redistributing our body-weight. This is not a conscious process, of course - it is something we never really think about. If you do plenty of sketches from observation of people standing chatting in city streets or waiting for buses, your understanding and perception of such things will soon become just as automatic, and the benefits will be evident in your drawings.

If you've never tried this you may think that it sounds like hard work. It isn't. It is a most pleasurable and most rewarding occupation. It is relaxing and invigorating, and as a means of improving your drawing skills it can't be beaten. Throughout this book I shall return again and again to this theme of drawing and sketching from life. It is a process of reaching out for raw material to provide a pool of resources for your imagination to call upon. Without this exercise of your powers of observation, your drawings from memory are in danger of gradually deteriorating until they become little more than a series of clich s.

Drawing the human figure is an excellent way to improve and expand on your observational drawing skills. In Chapter 11, you were advised to draw a portrait of a real person in front of you and not use a photograph to draw from. Drawing from a live model is a good foundation on which to build your drawing skills and your skills of observation. Drawing from a live model will also enable you to understand what is in front of your eyes from many different angles.

With the point of your charcoal, make a slow, careful contour drawing of your subject. Include any edge, outside or inside (such as the grooves of a pumpkin) that can be turned into a contour line. Put specific character into your drawing by recording what you see, not a generalization. What you think is round may actually be somewhat bumpy, often angular. Slow down to get that in there. Note that stems have two sides, like miniature tubes. If there's some part that's particularly hard to draw, practice it with pen or pencil on scrap paper. If you don't like your contour drawing, wipe it out, lay in more ground, then smooth it over with a paper towel. Are you sure you want this subject You can change your mind

A plan and elevation of the base of a candlestick are shown in Fig. 8. Draw (a) another elevetion when the base is viewed in the direction of the arrow and (b) an accurate isometric view of that half of the candlestick base indicated by the letters abed on the plan view. The edge ab is to be in the foreground of your drawing 9 Fig 9 shows the plan and elevation of an angle block. Make a full size isometric projection of the block, making the radiused corner the lowest pert of your drawing. Do not use an isometric scale. Hidden detail should be shown.

By you, that you may often refer to them. In your next trial you will do better. You will have advanced a certain step and onward will be your progress, as surely as you persevere. Never fatigue yourself over your drawing. The moment you work without a will, it should be laid aside. 48. Last, though not of least importance, let it be urged upon the pupil early to acquire a good position in drawing. It should be easy, and in no way painful to the chest. There is no necessity for leaning over your work in an ungraceful or painful attitude. The eye should be, as nearly as possible, directly opposite the centre of your drawing. It is unnecessary to give directions as to the manner of holding your pen or pencil. Your own judgment must direct you as to that. It matters little, so that you feel the instrument fit your fingers easily. If proper attention has been bestowed upon the primary instructions given, you have already learned the importance of depending, not solely on your fingers, but...

When trying to determine where the vanishing points are, it is helpful to tack pieces of paper on either side of your drawing paper, or to place your drawing paper on a large board when constructing objects in perspective. You can use this technique in the drawing demonstration on the following pages. As your eye becomes more trained and your drawing skills more precise, you will be able to combine the methods discussed here with direct observation to accurately draw objects in perspective.

The more you practice to develop your skills and experiment with different methods of line drawing as an artist, the more you will be able to see your own personal drawing signature begin to emerge in your drawing. This is a natural process and shouldn't be forced otherwise, you run the risk of hindering the learning process and developing a contrived style in your work. If you work diligently, with an open mind and a spirit of exploration of study, you will find that new surprises will materialize in your work as you evolve technically and artistically. This is what it means to work as an artist. Over time, as you experiment with different materials and develop your drawing skills, you will find yourself gravitating toward the drawing media and papers that best suit your personality as an artist. While this may seem to be an overly mechanical method of drawing for some, it is a great way to begin training your eye to see shapes. As you become a more trained artist, you most likely...

And there is one other thing I want to say. Show your work to others. You shouldn't keep your drawings to yourself. People's evaluation can be a great stimulus. There are a lot of other things that I could say but I will leave you with these two main points. If you really want to draw for a living then I advise you to make fair copies of your drawings and show people your drawings. I hope that this advice helps you to get to where you want to go.

You can use compositional devices like this within your work to emphasize what you feel is important in your drawing. Often this will happen quite naturally, and you will unconsciously accentuate what attracted you to the subject in the beginning. The more you draw, the more this will happen. If you consciously add elements to make your point understood, these elements can become obvious and too mechanical looking. Therefore, it is important that these elements be subtle, so that the viewer is not always aware of how you are directing their gaze. This sense of mystery will involve the viewer in the work, and make them return to the work again and again. In Chapter 4, you were introduced to creating toned paper using graphite. Using a similar process, you can add some color to your drawings by adding a tone to your paper using soft pastels. After following the steps below, you will be ready to draw a figure on colored paper. Using charcoal allows you to easily wipe away something that...

To draw the human figure convincingly, you must be aware of the gesture, or the movement, or position of the body. This gesture gives movement and direction to your drawing, which makes it appear more lifelike. Observing the gesture carefully helps you to understand the placement of the spine, which serves as the center of movement for the whole body. You can also think of this in the opposite way Observe the placement of the spine, and you will understand the gesture.

We will begin this drawing in a careful, methodical fashion, making sure that the initial construction lines (or guidelines) that you use to place your building in two-point perspective are precise. You will be happy that you took the time to do the preparatory work, especially when you begin to render your subject in light and shadow, as you will be able to concentrate on the rendering of the drawing, knowing that everything is in its right place. This can potentially save you a lot of time in the long run, as you will not have to redraw portions of your drawing that are incorrect.

The most important thing when you are drawing is the feeling. How are you going to express what you are thinking That is what counts. Your drawings openly express your likes and dislikes, your personality and emotions. You are not really aware of yourself when you go about your daily life but drawing makes you take a look at yourself. There are no shortcuts to improving your drawing skills. The more you persevere, the better your drawings will be. Have a go at drawing everything around you, no matter what. Copy the drawings done by skilful artists. It's OK to do it just for the fun of it. Do it over and over again until the research you've done pays off and you have the material to draw what you like.Observe everything in your everyday life. Watch everything around you people's expressions, their gestures, the way they talk, the way they move, the way they dress etc. Do the same with things. Observe the position of the light source and the shadows, colors, shapes, size, textures....

If someone is frightened, he doesn't stand with his chest pushed out. He cowers or puts his hands up to protect himself. A human symbol for triumph is having both hands raised above our heads with our fists clenched. It would never be bending over with your head in your hands. As I wrote in Chapter One, realize that you can empathize with the people you are drawing. Use this connection to speed up your drawing process.

A staple of practically every art program on the market today, selection tools are deceptively simple You use a selection tool to confine a specific area ol your canvas. It probably doesn't sound like much, until you find out what you can now do namely, you can work within the selected area without worrying about ruining the rest of your work. Whether it's to add a subtle effect, fill in a sold color or screentone, or remove a piece of your drawing that just isn't working for you, only the area bound by the selection is affected. The more you use it, the more you find out how much of a timesaver it can be to your work (especially when you consider the alternative approach to filling in a section, which is to create a new layer, fill it with the color or tone, and then trim away the excess).

Going back through your drawings can be a revealing experience, even if you only started them a few weeks ago. Your first surprise will be just how much progress you've made in your technical skill. That's because just drawing something every day means you're practicing, and practice will improve any skill.

Put your drawing on the plastic up in front of you, as vertically as possible. 5. Start copying your drawing onto paper, using the grid to see the relations between things and lines that you drew on the plastic. Can you see how the grid helped you to transfer your drawing from the plastic to the paper Did it help to have the grid to establish distance or relation between things as you copied your drawing When you're finished, put your drawing aside to compare later. These exercises can be repeated as often as you like you will only get better at seeing and drawing.

You can use your drawings as the basis for painting on cabinet doors or the drawer fronts of a dresser that needs help. For your first project, here are some simple steps you can follow. 4. You can transfer your drawing to a cabinet or drawer front by blackening the back of a copy of the drawing with your softest pencil and then taping it carefully and drawing over your drawing lines. The soft pencil acts like carbon paper (remember carbon paper ) and your outline is there on the surface, ready to paint. This will work for several passes, and then you might have to reapply the pencil or finish with another copy of your drawing.

Your first attempts as an artist are probably to draw things in a flat and simple manner. However, with a basic understanding of the principles of perspective, you can increase the depth of your art and have a lot of fun doing it. This section gives you an overview of what perspective is and isn't and the different types of perspective you can use when drawing your cartoons. To create a proper perspective, start with the vanishing point as the point of reference for the drawing. You don't have to mark a big X in your drawing to designate where the vanishing point or points are, but you should be aware of the general location so that all the appropriate angles line up accordingly.

A couple of books I can recommend on the subject of clothing are DynamicWrinkles and Drapery by Burne Hogarth and George Bridgeman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life. Hogarth's book is good in that he explains clothing in a directional force oriented method. He shows different types of wrinkles and pulls in clothing. The problem with this book for animation is that he draws all of the wrinkles and therefore the illustrations are too busy. You don't want to get caught up in doing this yourself. Clarity of the idea of the pose is what will make your drawings strong and loud.

As discussed in Chapter 6, be careful not to add too much detail to your drawing. By not adding a lot of detail, you will give your drawing a more natural quality. Remember that the human eye actually sees a small area of focused detail at any given time. If, however, you like your drawings to look like a photograph, as though the subject is being seen through a camera lens and not a human eye, then add as much detail as you like. The best way to test whether the details that you're adding to your drawing are either working or hindering the work is to periodically step back at least 10 feet from your drawing. If it jumps out at you too much, it's either too darkly or crisply drawn, or the accuracy of the perspective is incorrect.

Before you make a line you must have a clear conception of what you want to draw. In your mind it is necessary to have an idea of what the figure to be drawn is doing. Study the model from different angles. Sense the nature and condition of the action, or inaction. This conception is the real beginning of your drawing. Give due consideration to the placing of your drawing

Your drawing by making the lines you want to keep a little darker with your pencil. Begin shading in the visor and other parts of the helmet like the insidecurves. This gives your drawing a sense of lighting and makes it feel three dimensional To add some reflections inside the visor leave some white areas when you shade it or just use your eraser make them.

Finding the right pencils to use for your drawings is the first step toward developing your artistic identity. The pencil is, after all, the primary tool of our trade. We can't work without it - Jj For the illustrations in this book, we will use regular standard leads ranging from a 2H to 6B. No matter the pencil, it is crucial to keep it sharp. A pencil's sharpness is directly related to the success of your drawing. Just remember a dull point equals a dull drawing. You might consider avoiding these harder pencils altogether, but they can be useful when working with certain types of paper. For instance, harder leads take well to Clearprint or other drafting papers. You might use 2H pencils to do some of the lightest shading on your drawing before moving on to an HB and the darker leads. They can be used for any subject but require a very gentle hand. B pencils contain softer graphite that results in a darker line. (B could stand for bold.) The higher the number, the darker the line. A...

Now you are ready to draw a real portrait of a person. You'll be seeing the wondrous complexity of contours, watching your drawing evolve from the line that is your unique, creative invention, and observing yourself integrating your skills into the drawing process. You will be seeing, in the artist's mode of seeing, the astounding thing-as-it-is, not a pale, symbolized, categorized, analyzed, memorized shell of itself. Opening the door to see clearly that which is before you, you will draw the image by which you make yourself known to us. If I were personally demonstrating the process of drawing a portrait profile, I would not be naming parts. I would point to the various areas and refer to features, for example, as this form, this contour, this angle, the curve of this form, and so on. For the sake of clarity in writing, unfortunately, I'll have to name the parts. I fear that the process may seem cumbersome and detailed when written out as verbal instructions. The truth is that your...

The contour drawing while looking should be done with the same focus on seeing the lines, but you get to follow your drawing hand by looking. Stay focused on what you see. 4. Pick a place on your paper to place and begin your drawing. As with your first set of drawings, you'll find that the more you practice really seeing and drawing what you see rather than what you think you see, the better your drawings will be. To tap into your creative energy and realize your potential is a great power, one you can use for more than just drawing.

Add the Darker Values of the Bananas and Finish With Shadows and Background With the HB pencil, shade the darker areas of the bananas. Use a 4B pencil to add shadows under the apples and bananas, with the darkest part closest to the fruit. Add the background value with a 4H pencil, using uniform pencil strokes. Make the apples slightly darker with a 4H pencil. Use the value scale to check your work and make any necessary adjustments. Sign and date your drawing.

Drawings are reproduced in many sizes and small items present little difficulty with zoom facilities. Views drawn to different scales and a variety of orientations can be arranged on the same drawing print as an aid to comprehension. Windows giving an overall view of your drawing for fast zooming and panning are also of value. Typical projects could involve solutions involving building design, communication, and government utilities land development and manufacturing industries. It can also download design data from the Internet, allow you to automatically publish design data on the Web, host online meetings, drag and drop content from manufacturers websites into your drawings and much more. It delivers higher levels of productivity through unmatched performance and simplicity.

So you imported your image into Manga Studio, but things don't seem right when you view it on the page The image size is completely wrong And why is the color all gone (That is, if your drawing was in color.) Or worse, why can't you see (or only barely see) the pencil work you just scanned in Check out Figure 5-2 which is what I think would be a worst-case scenario. It's okay. Your image is really there, and it's a cinch to tweak the settings so you can see your art, as well as resize, rotate, and position it so that you can get right to work.

Gauging proportions is as simple as making sure that the width and height of the objects in your drawing are proportionally similar to those in your reference. Believable art starts with correct proportions, so learning how to gauge proportions accurately will be invaluable. You don't need to know the actual inches or cen proportional, are used to gauge proportions of two-dimensional reference materials, such as photographs, rather than of three-dimensional objects, such as those in a still-life setup. Proportional dividers enable you to enlarge or reduce by measuring the reference with one end of the tool and then using the other end to determine the size of the image in your drawing. Proportional dividers are used not only to compare proportions but also to enlarge or reduce. Measure the subject in your reference with one end of the dividers, then use the other end to mark the measurement for your drawing. The notches in the center of the dividers let you determine just how much you...

There are several other items you'll want to purchase for your budding art career. I find the following tools to be indispensable when drawing, and I know you will, too You can draw on almost any surface. Certainly, there isn't a right or wrong paper, only a preference for a certain look or feel for your drawing. Another consideration is surface texture. The texture, or tooth, of your drawing paper is determined by touch and makes quite a difference in the final appearance of your work of art. The paper designated as smooth or plate finish allows for a finished drawing with lots of detail. The individual pencil strokes tend to blend together well because the graphite will fill in evenly on the paper surface. The bristol board I use has a smooth finish. In addition to buying paper for your finished drawings, you'll also want to stock up on tracing paper. Tracing paper is useful for a number of tasks, such as keeping your drawing paper clean and spotting (and correcting) errors in your...

The five windows Blake refers to are the five senses, the means through which we understand and record the world around us. We call this perception, and like Blake suggests, sometimes our perceptions can lead us astray. However, if you have a proper understanding of perception and how it affects your view of the world, and thus your art, you'll be better equipped to develop strong, solid drawing skills. First, each of us has a filter that affects our perceptions. By shaping your filter to meet your interests, you can build upon your dictionary of patterns and develop your artistic skills. However, it can be a challenge to alter your perception without study and practice. original patterns stored in your brain. Your drawings will never improve until you learn to see all the details that make up your subject. Although I have drawn faces for years, I have to study the face I'm drawing just as diligently every time as I did for my first drawings. I have to make an effort to really take in...